Amid Successes, W.N.B.A. Is Still Facing Challenges

With all the good news that it has to shout about, the W.N.B.A. may be the quietest professional sports league in the United States.

The N.F.L. is a behemoth, the N.B.A. pounds its chest and Major League Baseball enjoys an inheritance, but the W.N.B.A. — the most successful women’s teams sports league in American history — continues to fly under the radar even as it prepares for its 16th finals this week. And though it wouldn’t be accurate to say that nobody cares, league officials say they wish more people did.

The league has completed its first season with the wireless service provider Boost Mobile as its marquee sponsor. Officials say W.N.B.A. merchandise sales have increased 19 percent over last season and group sales by 20 percent. Season-ticket renewals for next season are up 10 percent.

In many ways the W.N.B.A. would not exist without Title IX, the federal mandate that, among other things, created equal opportunity for women in college sports. Title IX’s reach does not extend beyond the college cocoon, so women’s pro sports are forced to make their own way in a marketplace dominated by the more established men’s leagues.

But the league has held its own in this competitive landscape. It had, for example, a strong presence at the London Olympics, with its players represented on several national teams. The young talent in the league and the talent on the horizon are sources of optimism.

“I feel very good about the level of play in the United States, and we’ve had a very solid year in terms of very key metrics,” said Laurel Richie, who is completing her second season as the league president after serving as a senior vice president and chief marketing officer for the Girl Scouts.

But metrics are one thing, passion quite another. The challenge for the W.N.B.A. is to cultivate a widening fan base that really cares about women’s basketball. Richie’s marketing background makes her a timely pick to head the league. But she faces challenges.

Despite an uptick in season-ticket sales, the W.N.B.A. had its lowest average regular-season attendance, 7,457 fans a game, since its inception in 1997. It has not averaged more than 10,000 since 1999.

“At the end of the day, you’ve got to get people in the stands and people supporting it, and not just dads with their little daughters,” said Chamique Holdsclaw, a three-time all-American at Tennessee and a former W.N.B.A. star.

Holdsclaw notes that men often get together after work and go to N.B.A. games in their business suits.

“It’s the after-work thing to do,” she said. “You rarely see that with women. The W.N.B.A. and N.B.A. need businesswomen and women executives buying season tickets and going to games after work. We’re trying, we’re making waves. We’re not there, where we need to be yet.”

In a significant shift, the W.N.B.A. is promoting not simply those who fit a traditional marketing profile but its top talent, like Minnesota’s heavily tattooed star Seimone Augustus, who burst on the scene with an abundance of personality and has been widely embraced.

“Sometimes it wasn’t the best players who were being promoted, but the best image,” Holdsclaw said. “I see the league getting away from that and saying, hey, we want to promote the players who are the best players.”

Closely related, Holdsclaw said, is the W.N.B.A.’s acknowledgment of its significant gay fan base, an effort that sets it apart from its male counterparts.

Photo

The opening game of the W.N.B.A. Eastern Conference finals between Indiana and Connecticut.Credit
Jessica Hill/Associated Press

“The league realizes that it has to support and have a place for its gay community,” Holdsclaw said. “A lot of gay people love sports and want to support the W.N.B.A. You have players, some star players now, who openly identify as being gay. Early on, the league would not market them because of that. That has changed. You have to be honest with your product and with the athletes that you’re dealing with. And get support from wherever you can.”

Another great challenge is making the league a hip destination, not a social or moral obligation.

“You have to make your product interesting and entertaining and make it a choice,” said Paula Madison, the chief executive and majority owner of the Los Angeles Sparks. “You can’t get people to come to you because they feel badly. It can’t be, ‘Oh my God, I should go watch women’s basketball.’ ”

She added: “It’s got to be: ‘I had an unbelievable experience. It was so much fun, the level of play was great and the fans were great and I can take my kids and it didn’t break my wallet.’ That’s where we have to start.”

The Sparks have been one of the W.N.B.A.’s most successful franchises and Madison one of the league’s most dynamic owners. She decided to buy the team in 2007 after the radio host Don Imus referred to members of the predominantly black Rutgers women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hos.”

“That changed my whole life,” said Madison, who is African-American and was NBC’s diversity chief at the time. “It did two things. It made me, with all of my might, work really hard to have NBC separate itself from Don Imus.”

MSNBC broadcast Imus’s show.

After working successfully to sever the relationship, Madison turned her attention to the Sparks, who are not affiliated with the N.B.A.

Madison pointed out that the issues facing the W.N.B.A. are not only economic but cultural. These go to the core of the perception of and value placed on women as athletes.

“We bump up against culture challenges,” Madison said. “There are some cultures that don’t want young women once they get past 15 years old or so being that athletic. There are some young women who perceive being athletic as being not as feminine.”

There have also been suggestions that the W.N.B.A. should play in smaller arenas to create a more intimate experience. But Madison said the league could not go backward.

“In order for us to gain the kind of marketing dollars and sponsorship dollars, we have to play big,” she said.

Rather, she said, the W.N.B.A.’s goal should be to secure a leaguewide television contract. According to Madison, the Sparks, who led the league with an average attendance of 10,176, are the only W.N.B.A. team with a paid local television contract — through Time Warner Sports West. The other teams give the games away or pay a production fee to have their games televised.

“I’m not giving this away; that’s content that somebody needs,” she said. “Once you give it away, it becomes virtually impossible now to monetize it.”

The most compelling argument for the W.N.B.A.’s survival may be the N.B.A. itself. The men’s league was in 1946 known as the Basketball Association of America and adopted its current name in 1949 after merging with the rival National Basketball League. It spent decades and millions of dollars to establish itself on the American sports landscape.

With innovative marketing and forceful leadership, the W.N.B.A. can make similar strides, aided by a greater acceptance of women’s sports and the increasing athleticism of its players.

Record numbers of girls continue to play the sport, and women’s college basketball at the top level enjoys popularity. And, most important, the W.N.B.A., in a relative sense, is in its infancy.

“I have to remind myself that the W.N.B.A. is in its 16th year going on its 17th year,” Richie said. “This is a process; it takes time to build a following. There are strong signs we’re headed in the right direction.”

E-mail: wcr@nytimes.com

A version of this article appears in print on October 8, 2012, on page D9 of the New York edition with the headline: Amid Successes, W.N.B.A. Is Still Facing Challenges. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe